Motility is used as a routine parameter for assessing spermatozoa activity. The quality rating techniques adopted are based on electron or optical microscopy. However, these methods depend on gross structural and dynamical features of sperm cells and do not provide information on metabolic activity of intact cells. Lately, biochemical assays have become popular. Such methods are cumbersome and destroy the samples. Magnetic resonance methods offer a non-invasive method for studies on intact sperms. We have investigated respiration, maturation andin vitro capacitation of sperms from human ejaculates and sperms extracted from goat reproductive organ using electron spin resonance spin labelling and [³¹P] nuclear magnetic resonance methods. These studies clearly establish the advantages of magnetic resonance in studies related to metabolic activity of sperms.

Lipids in biological membranes generally adopt bilayer structures. However, incorporation of peptides may induce alterations in such structures. We have studied the influence of tryptophan, leucine, Trp-Leu, luteinizing hormone releasing hormone and renin inhibitor peptide on lipid organisation in liposomes. It has been observed that the effect is specific to the peptide molecule as-a whole and does not have direct correlation to the constituent amino acids or the conformation of the molecule.

The dual functional signal transducers and activators of transcription (STAT) proteins are latent cytoplasmic transcription factors that play crucial roles in host defense. Animals that lack these proteins are highly susceptible to microbial and viral infections and chemically induced primary tumours. We have over expressed the aminoterminal domain of human STAT1 (hSTAT1) inEscherichia coli and purified it by affinity chromatography and gel filtration chromatography. The entire process has been monitored by gel electrophoresis. The pure protein has been characterized by mass spectrometry and 2-dimensional nuclear magnetic resonance (2D-NMR) spectroscopy. Our results indicate that the N-terminus of hSTAT1 exists as a dimer in solution.